Saturday, February 24, 2007

NPC shows steady growth

Background

NPC is involved in the operation of oil palm plantations and palm oil milling. Its operations are carried out solely in the state of Sabah.

Recent Financial Results

NPC has just announced its results for FY2006, which shows a 57%-increase in net profit from RM12.3 million to RM19.2 million. This is achieved on a marginally higher turnover of RM205 million. The better performance was due to higher CPO prices.



Valuation

Based on NPC's closing price of RM1.59 & its EPS of 16 sen for FY2006, the stock is now trading at a PE of 10 times. When compared to bigger plantation stocks that trade at PE multiples of 15 times, the PE multiples of NPC is undemanding.

Technical Outlook

NPC's share price has been capped by the overhead resistance of RM1.70. If this stock can break above this resistance, there is good chance that it may test the recent high of RM2.10.


Chart: NPC's daily chart as at Feb 23

Conclusion

Based on undemanding PE multiple, NPC could be one of the few remaining cheap plantation stocks on our exchange. If the share price can surpass the RM1.70 level, the technical 'BUY' call would be issued.

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